Friday, January 12, 2007

Take Advantage of Sleeptime - Easy Meatloaf & Veggies

This is one of my favorite photos. That's Poppa (better known to you as my Honey) and Boaz, who's sleeping through the frenzy... nine million phone calls, lots of organizing to do for all the parties and out of town visitors (and he's only 7 days old here - Boaz, not Poppa), and of course there's the obvious task at hand...just adjusting to the whole eating/sleeping routine. Which leads me to the purpose of this post...taking advantage of non-baby focused time.

One of the most challenging things for a new mom, especially if she's not lucky enough to have some support, is finding the time to prepare a nourishing meal. Bottom line....take advantage of baby sleep time to prepare the elements for meals. For example, tonight we're having Mediterranean Meatloafwith Sauteed Broccoli & Red Pepper Flakesand Garlic Mashed Potatoes (Grandma needs some comfort food after all the rushing about and yes, if you're observant you realize that this isn't a new photo. But green or yellow beans with a gremolata is also tasty). But I digress...here's how I used about 15-20 minutes to get dinner ready in advance.

After the visitors left (lots of people in town who want to visit), and Mummy and Boaz went to nurse and nap, I prepared the meatloaf (5 minutes) and popped it in the oven for 50 minutes (I'll take it out and pop it back in to heat up about 10 minutes before we actually plan to eat), peeled and cubed the potatoes and put them in a pot of water with 2 cloves of garlic. They'll take about 20 minutes to cook, but they're ready to just turn on the stove. The broccoli florets are ready, and the lemon, garlic and red pepper flakes are all ready to add to a skillet 5 minutes before everyone is starving.

Now I can have a little rest too before the fun starts up again. Oh - and dessert....lots of fruit - Spanish Clementine oranges, grapes, melons and some Zucchini Bread I made yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, I made some Herb & Three Cheese Pasta(my favorite Mac & Cheese). I cooked the pasta and had the cheeses, garlic & herbs on hand for actual meal time - which got delayed 4 times for the usual crazy "first few days" reasons. The thing is, when we finally were ready to eat, it only took 10 minutes to actually get it together.

So, take advantage of quiet moments to do some of the prep work and the results are a much more restful (& quick) way to get dinner ready.